On the 11th September 1973 a coup d'État orchestrated by the Chilean Armed Forces brought an end to the three year period of Salvador Allende's socialist government. The leader of this putsch, Augusto Pinochet, established in its place a violent military dictatorship, which was to last for seventeen years. A traumatic event marking the beginning either of a repressive period in Chilean history, or of national salvation from the fiery depths of socialist hell, preventing society's demise? The memory of the Chilean society remains divided in the wake of its recent past.
The study seeks to define the inter-generational transmission of the memory of this repressive past. From Santiago to Montreal, this research endeavours to ascertain the post-memory generation's perception of its recent past, that is to say of those born slightly prior to or during the dictatorship. The depictions, the impressions and the learning channels will be compared with regard to the geographical location in order to illustrate the common and conflicting discourses. As the oral sources are the foundation of this master's thesis, we will convey the differing accounts of this past as reported by twenty-eight testimonies.